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Minerals and Waste Core Strategy

The new planning strategy and policies for minerals and waste development.

The Minerals and Waste Local Plan

Part 1: Core strategy was adopted on 12 September 2017. Itsets out the vision, objectives, spatial planning strategy and policies for meeting development requirements for the supply of minerals and the management of waste in Oxfordshire over the period to 2031.

It provides a policy framework for identifying sites for new minerals and waste developments in Part 2 of the plan - the site allocations document and for making decisions on planning applications.

Adoption of Minerals and Waste Core Strategy (September 2017)

The Minerals and Waste Core Strategy was adopted by Oxfordshire County Council on 12 September 2017, at a meeting of the full county council. Read the report to the council.

The adopted Core Strategy includes the main modifications recommended by the Inspector (see Inspector’s report below) and additional modifications that do not affect the policies of the plan. The adopted Core Strategy and accompanying Policies Map, the adoption statement and the sustainability appraisal (SEA/SA) report and adoption statement are available below:

These documents and the Inspector’s Report are available for inspection free of charge at: Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, New Road, Oxford, OX1 1ND (9.00am – 5.00pm, Monday to Thursday; 9am – 4pm, Friday).

The council has also produced for information a composite version of the Core Strategy showing the main and additional modifications as changes to the version of the plan that was submitted for examination in December 2015. This is available below:

Inspector's final report (June 2017)

On 15 June 2017, the council received the final report from the Inspector, Mr Brian Cook, who has carried out the independent examination of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy. He issued the report following the examination hearing sessions that were held between 20 and 30 September 2016 and after considering the representations that were made on the council’s proposed modifications to the plan. It is available below:

Recommendations

The Inspector recommended main modifications to the plan, largely as proposed by the council, and found that, with these modifications, the Core Strategy satisfies legal requirements and meets the criteria for soundness.

The Inspector confirmed that the duty to co-operate had been met in the preparation of the Core Strategy. He also concluded that all legal requirements for the plan, including for sustainability appraisal, had been met.

The Inspector’s assessment of soundness considered four main issues:

provision for the supply of aggregates and for waste management capacity

spatial strategies for delivering the required provision for aggregates and waste management capacity

development management policies

the monitoring framework.

He confirmed the findings of his interim report in October 2016 on the amounts of provision that need to be made for mineral working and waste management over the plan period to 2031. The Inspector’s final report includes this as an appendix.

Consultation on proposed modifications (February 2017)

Following the findings of the Inspector’s interim report (below), the council undertook further Strategic Environmental Assessment/Sustainability Appraisal (SEA/SA) work in conjunction with the preparation of proposed main modifications to the Core Strategy.

The proposed main modifications and a comprehensive SEA/SA report update were approved for consultation by the Council’s Cabinet on 24 January 2017. The council consulted on these documents for a period of six weeks from 03 February – 20 March 2017.

The council also prepared proposed additional modifications (minor changes) to the Core Strategy and invited comments on these (although they were not part of the formal consultation and have not being put before the Inspector).

In addition, a composite version of the Core Strategy including both the proposed main modifications and the additional modifications has been prepared. These documents are available here:

Inspector’s interim report (October 2016)

The council received an interim report from the inspector, Mr Brian Cook, who was carrying out the independent examination of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy. He issued this following the examination hearing sessions that were held between 20 and 30 September. It is available here.

The interim report provides the inspector’s conclusions on the amounts of provision that need to be made for mineral working and waste management over the plan period to 2031. It confirms that the provision figures for aggregate minerals that should be included in the plan are those proposed by the council, taken from the Local Aggregate Assessment 2014.

In addition, the Inspector found that the duty to co-operate has been met in the preparation of the core strategy.

The inspector concluded that further strategic environmental assessment / sustainability appraisal (SEA/SA) needed to be carried out, in conjunction with the preparation of proposed modifications to the core strategy. The proposed modifications and the further SEA/SA report would be published for public consultation.

Core strategy - additional documents (April 2016)

The additional documents are available for viewing and download below. We invited comments on these documents from 29 April – 12 June and the responses we received are also published below. Please note that the consultation period has now closed.

Submission of Minerals and Waste Core Strategy 2015

In February 2014 we consulted on the draft Minerals and Waste Local Plan: Core Strategy. The consultation document is available below.

This built on relevant work that was done in the preparation of the previous (withdrawn) plan, including the responses to the proposed submission document May 2012 and the consultations on draft documents in September 2011 and before.

Documents from the earlier work that are relevant to preparation of the new core strategy are on this page.

We looked at all the comments made in the responses to the consultation draft core strategy and made changes to the plan in response to these comments and in the light of national planning policy and guidance, further technical assessments and other relevant information.

A revised core strategy – the proposed submission document – was approved by the county council on 24 March 2015 for publication for a further round of consultation and submission to the Secretary of State for independent examination. The report to the council meeting is available here.

We published the Minerals and Waste Local Plan: Part 1 – Core Strategy proposed submission document on 19 August 2015, to enable formal representations to be made. The period for making representations ended on 30 September 2015.

On 30 December 2015 we submitted the Minerals and Waste Local Plan: Part 1 – Core Strategy to the Secretary of State for independent examination. We also submitted all the representations received and a number of other documents relating to the preparation of the plan. The submitted plan and other submitted documents are available below.

Examination of Minerals and Waste Core Strategy

The Secretary of State appointed Mr Brian Cook BA(Hons) DipTP MRTPI as the Planning Inspector to carry out the independent examination of the plan.

The council has appointed Mrs Helen Wilson as the Programme Officer for the examination.

All information and documentation relating to the examination of the Core Strategy is on a separate examination website managed by the programme officer.

The Inspector considered the representations either in writing or at oral hearings.

The hearing sessions commenced at 9.30am on 20 September 2016 at the Newman Room, Oxford University Catholic Chaplaincy, The Old Palace, Rose Place, St Aldates, Oxford OX1 1RD. The hearing closed on 30 September 2016. The programme and the Inspector’s Matters and Issues for the hearing sessions are available on the examination website.

Submitted plan and other documents

The submitted plan, representations and other submitted documents are available below.

The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 requires that the Minerals and Waste Local Plan documents be prepared with a view to contributing to sustainable development. An appraisal of the sustainability of the proposals in each document must be carried out and a sustainability report prepared.

Under a European directive, we are also required to carry out strategic environmental assessment of plans and programmes which are likely to have significant effects on the environment. These two appraisal and assessment processes have been combined.

The report (August 2015) on the sustainability appraisal / strategic environmental assessment of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy proposed submission document is included in the submitted documents above.

The sustainability appraisal of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy Consultation Draft February 2014 and previous (2006 – 2012) sustainability appraisal reports relating to earlier versions of the core strategy are also included in the submitted documents above.

Habitats Regulations Assessment

Under the European Habitats Directive, we are required to carry out a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) of the Minerals and Waste Plan to determine whether it is likely to have a significant effect on any of the Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in or near to Oxfordshire.

This builds on an earlier HRA screening report prepared in August 2011. It also takes into account the additional information and conclusions reached in the Technical Supplement prepared by consultants in January 2012 to support the HRA, and consequent changes made in the Core Strategy to locations for working aggregate minerals in proximity to Oxford Meadows and Cothill Fen SACs.

The current Habitats Regulations Assessment documents are included in the submitted documents above.

Strategic Flood Risk Assessment

A Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) was undertaken in October 2010 to assess the potential flood risk within the county and inform the selection of strategies and locations for minerals and waste development. That Level 1 SFRA related to the previous (2012) version of the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy. It is available below.

A review of the SFRA has been undertaken, to take account of new data on flooding and other information, and to reflect changes made to the core strategy. A revised Level 1 SFRA (2015) has been prepared by consultants to support the core strategy and is included in the submitted documents above.

Previous (withdrawn) Minerals and Waste Core Strategy (2012)

This section is included here for background information. The documents included in this section are no longer current. Any documents that remain current have been moved to the list of documents submitted in December 2015 (above).

The Minerals and Waste Core Strategy Proposed Submission Document was agreed by the county council in April 2012 and was published in May 2012 for representations to be made.

The Core Strategy was submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination on 31 October 2012. On 9 July 2013 the county council resolved to withdraw the submitted plan and the Oxfordshire Minerals and Waste Plan – Minerals and Waste Core Strategy was withdrawn on that date under Section 22(1) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Further information on this is contained in the report to the 9 July county council meeting (pdf format).

Although the previous Submitted Minerals and Waste Core Strategy was withdrawn, the Proposed Submission Document and other proposed submission documents published in May 2012 are an important part of the background to the preparation of the revised Core Strategy and have therefore been retained on this page.

The Proposed Submission Document was prepared after we had considered all the responses to our consultation on the Draft Minerals and Waste Planning Strategies, September 2011 (see documents below). The council's response to the issues raised in that consultation is available below.

The council’s Statement on Consultation and Representations and Statement on Compliance with the Duty to Co-operate, produced when the previous plan was submitted in October 2012, are also available below.

Minerals and Waste Core Strategy (2012) submission documents

Excluding any documents now included in the documents submitted in December 2015 listed above.

Consultation on draft Minerals and Waste Planning Strategy 2011

In September 2011 we published consultations on a draft Minerals Planning Strategy and a draft Waste Planning Strategy. The consultation documents and related sustainability appraisal reports are included in the list of documents submitted in December 2015 (above). The responses made to the consultation documents and reports on the outcome of two Stakeholder Workshops that took place as part of the consultations are available below.